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[0:00] Lauren Van Hemert: Hi everybody, I'm Lauren Van Hemert, and this is Beltline to Broadway, where we talk about the theater from inside the Beltline in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I am, to the bright lights of Broadway and beyond.

[0:14] Lauren Van Hemert: I need to ask you all to do me a favor and click on that subscribe button so you don't miss any of my candid conversations and interviews with Broadway insiders and theater makers across the globe.

[0:43] Lauren Van Hemert: Robert Hartwell is a North Carolina native who has worked on five Broadway shows, including the Hello Dolly Revival with Bette Midler, Motown the Musical, Cinderella, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and Memphis. These days, he is busy training the next generation of Broadway stars as the founder and artistic director of the Broadway Collective. This January, it was announced that in addition to his busy schedule running that successful business, that he would also be taking on a key role with North Carolina Theater as an associate artist for the upcoming 2021 2022 season.

[1:40] Lauren Van Hemert: Your first paying gig was at the age of 12 in Oliver. What do you remember about that experience?

[1:50] Robert Hartwell: You know, what I remember most was there was a young guy my age who was playing Oliver and he lived in New York City. I just remember being like, oh my gosh, this is someone my age who has been on Broadway, you know, and it was just it was a huge turning moment, you know, for me because you were like, oh, this thing is really possible. And then the choreographer, she was a Rockette, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is like a New York City Radio City Music Hall Rockette in Raleigh, North Carolina. You know, I was 12 years old. Like that was, it's one thing to talk about the dream, but to truly be able to have people right in front of you who are doing the very thing that you know you are called to do with your life. That moment was everything for me.

[2:39] Robert Hartwell: And you really say that NC Theater was the outlet for you kind of realizing your dream to be on Broadway.

[2:47] Robert Hartwell: I would definitely say my first glimpse into what professional theater was would be, you know, seeing a touring production of Cats come through Memorial Auditorium, um, and then being introduced to NCT as well. Um, and my mentor Kirsty Spadey, who is in Raleigh, North Carolina at North Carolina Dance Institute, just like taking me to see the shows and to seeing, you know, just where I could be. You know, she was very, very influential in making sure that I saw who I wanted to be.

[3:26] Lauren Van Hemert: You were featured in the New York Times two weeks ago because you bought this amazing, it looks amazing house. And you say that this house really represents you rewriting your ancestral narrative. So could you talk about the significance of purchasing this amazing historic home and closing on this home on Juneteenth, just weeks after George Floyd was killed?

[3:59] Robert Hartwell: Purchasing the home was a huge dream that I didn't even know that I had. And I think when you take leaps of faith in your life and you ask yourself to have courage to bet on yourself, new dreams start to be birthed from your dreams. And so I remember being a young guy in my early teens, um, and my mom purchasing her first home. And at that point in our lives, you know, my mom was a single mom. I had only we had only ever been in apartments or rental homes. And so to I remember seeing her come into my job, actually, I think it was 13, 14, and I had a little summer job and my mom came in and she was shaking the keys in front of my face and she just had like the biggest smile on her face. And, you know, when I got the keys for this home, it felt like that same sort of victory of truly what hard work and hope combined can do.

And so the cultural significance, especially where we are as a country right now, is definitely not lost on me that the purchase was made on Juneteenth, you know, and I say all the time, I think things in life will find you if you say yes and are available to them.

[5:37] Robert Hartwell: And so I didn't expect to be a homeowner last year, especially in the middle of a pandemic. But that house just found me and it said, Oh, yep, you are you are the one that's gonna, you know, usher me into the new world. Um, and I was like, okay, all right, I have no idea what homeownership means. I have no idea what the, you know, so I ran online and purchased like five books on how to buy a home and what you needed to do. Um, I love books, and you know, but really what it has shown me is that it's so important for us to be investing in spaces for BIPOC people to be able to get the training, the skills, and the access to the information to be able to build their own wealth.

[6:37] Robert Hartwell: And so many people have reached out and you know, want to talk about the house, and I think that that is incredible, and I love talking about it. It's like truly like my baby, but really I think Lauren, what it comes down to is building systems and structures for BIPOC people to be able to build wealth so that they are able to make generational impact on their family through homeownership. Um, and it's a part of, you know, the American story that a lot of us aren't able to tell, which is so heartbreaking because so many of our American homes, especially historic homes, were built on our backs of free enslaved labor. So it is not lost on me. And I am truly so excited about what the next chapter of the home looks like. Um, and I can't wait to have my family there and my friends to come and visit.

[7:40] Lauren Van Hemert: Yes. You know what it reminds me of? It kind of reminds me of um that scene in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun at the end because she buys that great big old house, and she's like, I always wanted a house with family and with friends, and you know, and he the salesperson's kind of like, yeah, you got that. It's not exactly what you envisioned, but it's new, it's a kind of realization of the dream you didn't know you had. So I love this.

[8:11] Robert Hartwell: And Lauren, I would even say the same is true about being able to come back to North Carolina Theater because you know, Eric Woodall has been a fixture in my life for so many years. North Carolina Theater has been a fixture in my life for so many years. And, you know, you don't even realize, you know, when we came to do Memphis, I was so excited to direct and choreograph that show and the cast was so fantastic and the designers were so incredible. I feel the theater and the community was so excited. Eric and the entire executive team at NCT, everyone was just so wonderful. But again, I had no idea that it would then lead to, you know, this moment to be able to serve in an even greater capacity. It's just it's really thrilling.

[9:01] Lauren Van Hemert: One of your roles at North Carolina Theater is going to be supporting artistic leadership in all matters of artistic programming decisions and planning. And what I love about this is we've seen this rising up in the we see you white American theater movement and demands to have an equitable presence at the table for BIPOC artists. Do you think that this new role you're filling, does that represent a kind of cultural shift we're beginning to see on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theaters, or is North Carolina Theater the anomaly?

[9:47] Robert Hartwell: Really wonderful question, Lauren. And you know, something that I told Eric, you know, is that the reason that I said yes is that I know the work was happening before this cultural awakening. And I am not interested in being um, you know, ever tokenized, and I did not feel that in Eric's proposal for me to work with North Carolina Theater, um, given the fact that we have had such a long-standing relationship that was built on curiosity before all of this, you know, happened, um, of what could be for me at the theater, what could be for us together? So I do think that there absolutely is a reckoning, and I do think that there are conversations that you know have to be had. Um, but I have to say I'm definitely leaning into the spaces that were doing the work before this happened and trying to lean less into the noise and the chaos of this current moment because I do think that there's a greater opportunity here for us to not only learn, but for us to activate when we lean into those spaces, I think that are truly coming at this moment in a genuine way.

[11:29] Lauren Van Hemert: And I have a question, you know, you are so influential. You have the Broadway Collective, and you're training the next generation of Broadway stars.

[11:42] Robert Hartwell: Do you feel that building an anti-racist theater system begins at that educational level? When we think about equitable spaces, when we think about inclusivity, it all comes back to information, it all comes back to access, it all comes back to what's happening in the classroom, and it's the sad but devastatingly true reality that so many black and brown students are going to be left behind from the wreckage of this two-year pandemic and what it's going to do to the school system, their matriculation through those programs, um, but specifically to black and brown students.

[12:29] Robert Hartwell: And so one of the things that excites me the most about the opportunity to be at NCT in this new position is that I'm so excited for us to work with the education department and really figure out how outreach can be a larger part of what it is that we do as an organization and not outreach in a way of let's you know bring students in at a discounted ticket price. That is not that's not the answer that we're seeking. The answer that we're seeking is that those students that there are no other way that they would be able to receive this level of training, which I do believe NCT has been a leader in for forever.

[13:21] Robert Hartwell: Um it's very evident by just looking at you know the alumni that have come through you know the doors of the conservatory at NCT, but truly making sure that we're able to bring students in from our community that have a desire for this, but just didn't know that there was a place for them because maybe they didn't see someone that looked like them in a brochure or on the Instagram account or on the stage, right? And what we're gonna do though is we're gonna work very hard to make sure that there are systems and structures and processes in place so that we are supporting those families because you cannot expect for us to find a 12-year-old BIPOC student, you know, who is in an underserved community, and that they're just going to be able to get to the conservatory five days a week, like the other, you know, students that have access to, you know, we're gonna have to look at transportation.

[13:52] Robert Hartwell: We're gonna have to look at okay, how do we make sure that they have the same dance clothes and dance shoes and things that the other students have, because if we're just bringing these students in for um the moment's sake, then we are going against, I think the very belief of who we are as an executive leadership team in this organization. But truly to make change, it's going to have to be a complete care of these students, of their dreams, of their futures. And I think that that means that we're gonna have to call in some help to make sure that we're supporting the families as well, so that we are able to have lasting change.

[15:10] Robert Hartwell: Because the second we're able to find those students in middle school and get them through those high school, you know, get them through high school, they're gonna get scholarships to every top musical theater BFA college program. They are then going to be the student that then moves to New York City, you know, that then is able to come back to NCT and say, hey, this place made a difference. And that I believe is when we will know we will have we will have made lasting change, is when you are getting someone to turn back around and say, Hey, 15 years ago, you made a space for me, but instead of just making a space for me, you made a space for my future, you made a space for my family. That's when we know that the work that we're doing right now mattered.

[15:57] Lauren Van Hemert: Well, and I think what you're speaking to is this much more holistic approach to performing arts training, which I think is so beneficial for students because here we are in the middle of a pandemic. Students aren't having those opportunities to audition. But I feel like with Broadway Collective, you're really looking at the bigger picture, not the immediate gratification of you take a class, you do an audition, you book a job. It's a bigger thing at play here, or at least that's what I'm hearing you say.

[16:37] Robert Hartwell: Oh, absolutely. And Lauren, just so there's no confusion, that process I was just walking through was the education work that I'm really excited to do at NCT. Yes. And I would definitely say as well for our programming at the Broadway Collective, which I love the idea that the team at NCT is so supportive of me continuing to foster my position here as well. But with that, I think, not I think, I know that students right now are up against so much as we are too as adults. And if you are not completely caring for the individual, then you're not completely caring for their future.

[17:26] Robert Hartwell: Because you can, you know, train anyone to do anything. But if you want to truly be able to foster a student that they are able to have a career and a future that is bigger than, you know, a win here, a win there, you are going to have to put processes and routines in their lives at an early age that allow them to succeed. So, one of the first things we do with our students is working on their morning routine, working on their self-care routine, having check-ins with, you know, we have a licensed therapist and life coach on our staff because it's so important that they're able to develop as people first.

[18:17] Robert Hartwell: It's truly let's develop you first, you know, um, because then the work is the seeds that we then plant in the singing and the dancing and the acting, they're going to actually be able to take root because we will have tilled the soil, we will have made sure that it is fertile and ready for what it is that we're planting.

[18:40] Lauren Van Hemert: So you say that Raleigh has your heart forever. How have your southern roots informed who you are as a business person, as an artist, as an arts leader?

[18:57] Robert Hartwell: I think it comes back down to kindness, and I think it comes back down to decency even when you don't agree with someone. But what I will definitely say that I learned most from the elders and from the people in my life growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, is that although we may have different political beliefs, although we may have different religious beliefs, you treat people with kindness, respect, and dignity. And I think that that is something that I hope to pass on to the students and the parents that I get the opportunity to work with, but values that I truly cannot wait to instill in my own children because kindness and decency are it's a lost art form.

[18:57] Robert Hartwell: And I think it is truly the core of who we hope to be as North Carolina. Again, even when our politics and our religious beliefs are different, but I think we can all still come into a room and respect each other and to be kind and to be cordial, and it's something that we haven't seen in our world for the last four years, and it's very exciting now to see it restored.

[20:42] Lauren Van Hemert: You really wear many hats as a business person, as an artist, as an instructor, teacher. What has COVID-19 and 2020 this last year taught you about yourself?

[20:57] Robert Hartwell: It has taught me that resiliency is a daily practice of self-care and self-forgiveness and self-love. And it has taught me that if you pour in, I believe that you will be able to pour out because people need us in such a real way, and they're not even able to truly put a finger on it right now. But I just have never seen our parents and our students lean on us in such a way. And it feels very um cathartic to see that the arts are truly what is holding us together and is allowing us to get through this.

[21:54] Robert Hartwell: And so I just have learned so much about resiliency in the face of life, truly. That has been my lesson this past year you must continue to pour into yourself so that you are able to pour out to the people who the universe has trusted you with.